Tuesday, December 18, 2012

joe and i played it really smart this year and decided to wait until last weekend to start any and all christmas shopping.

saturday we went to the city for shopping and to see the nutcracker.

i've been not-so-subtle in my hints to joe that i want to see the nutcracker ballet.

it didn't happen last year, so i vowed this year we would do it.

i was ready to spend big bucks on the real deal, but when i was presented with the opportunity to see the san francisco youth ballet academy perform the nutcracker for only $7 a ticket!!, i couldn't pass it up.

"the kids will be really cute"

"i've seen some amazing child ballet dancers"

"$7 sounds so much better than $100!"

just a few of the thoughts i had.

you guys...i was wrong.

i'm pretty sure we were the only people in the audience who didn't have a child/sister/brother/some-sort-of-relative in the performance.

and i'm almost positive i'll have nightmares about the giant mouse and nutcracker for the rest of my life.

bravo kiddos, but lesson learned = sometimes, you get what you pay for.

it's a good thing we got a lot of shopping done, ate some delicious food, and ended the night at ghirardelli, so we could still call the day a success.

have i mentioned that i love the city at christmas time?

all i want for christmas is a house on the marina. please, santa?

we leave tomorrow for utah

(2 days earlier than planned thanks to a snow storm rolling in!!!

do you think i've ever been happier to hear about snow? no, i have not.)

that means i have a whole lot of shopping/packing/wrapping/cleaning the apt.

to get done in one day.

i could really stress out right about now

if excitement wasn't the only emotion i'm capable of feeling.

see you soon, utes!

ps. sorry for the lack of quality in the pictures.

they were all taken on my phone, most in motion.

but i'm also not sorry, cause its either phone pictures, or no pictures.

Monday, November 26, 2012

(not that i was offered an alternative, but i really thought i was ok with not being around family for turkey day. of course that all changed when i started watching the macy's parade while talking to my family.

the water works just came out of nowhere...and stayed for most of the morning.)

i eventually got a hold of my emotions, asked my mom a million cooking questions for
my homemade rolls and mashed potatoes,

and we ended up having such a wonderful, delicious, fun day.

i'm so grateful for the friends here that invited us to join them for thanksgiving dinner.

they made our thanksgiving away from home more than ok.

on friday, joe absolutely refused to take part in any black friday shopping

and i wasn't about to go brave those crowds by myself!

so instead we headed into the city for the tree lighting ceremony

to fight the biggest crowd we could find...

it was such a beautiful day, and i ended up getting to do some shopping after all :)

we watched the actual lighting of the tree from one of macy's big windows, and i'm pretty sure we had the best seat in the house.

we ended the night with some rooftop dining at cheesecake factory, with a view of union square, ice skaters, and the tree.

i'm loving the city this holiday season.

its so magical and buzzing with so much excitement.

on saturday joe finally agreed to see twilight with me.

i'm not sure what he hated more:

the movie, or my review of the first 4 movies so he wouldn't be confused the whole time.

i think he was still confused but he was a good sport and didn't make fun of me once!

sunday was a big day.

joe and i agree that the leftovers from thanksgiving is one of the best parts, and we knew we wouldn't have any this year.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

believe it or not, weekends with my husband around seem to be much more enjoyable than those when he's traveling for work.
this weekend, i took advantage of every minute with him.

we started the weekend off with a trip to the oakland temple.

its so pretty, and its such an amazing experience every time we go.

on saturday, our local bff brett was nice enough to give us tickets to the usu vs. sjsu football game.
we drove down and had a fun day in san jose.
i must say, its really fun to watch usu win a football game.
i'm not sure i witnessed that in my whole 4 years going there...

joe and i finished off the night in san fran, stopping at ghirardelli for some dessert.

only 7 weeks to go until i get my weekends with my husband back.
if anyone wants to come visit, this would be a great time. book your tickets...

Saturday, September 29, 2012

as i mentioned earlier, i planned this trip and kept all the details a surprise from joe.
this was the first picture i took of him in hawaii, waiting in line to get our rental car.
notice his nervous, forced smile?
he won't admit it, but he was a wreck all morning.
he hated having no control over our plans, and i know he was very nervous that something was going to go wrong. (ok, i was nervous about it too).
but everything worked out perfectly, even better than i had imagined!

we were blissed out the whole time.

we snorkled, body-surfed, shopped, slept in,

saw a turtle!
(no picture of course)

soaked up the sun, explored, played in the sand,

ate pina coladas every day and shaved ice every night

i'm ready for round two.

on our last day in maui we celebrated our one-year anniversary!

[we started off the celebration with breakfast at the gazebo restaurant.

joe was in heaven with his pineapple pancakes and coconut syrup!]

i can't believe a year has already gone by.
being married has been the best thing ever.
the past year has brought a lot of changes and firsts
and joe has been so supportive through all of it.
i've learned so much about him, and maybe even more about myself.
i'm so thankful such a wonderful man chose to spend eternity with me.
i love my mister!

3.13.2010 - she met him
3.17.2010 - he kissed her for the first time (she really made him work for that one, obviously...)
10.31.2010 - he moved to california. he cried a little. she cried a lot.
5.28.2011 - he proposed, she said yes. she cried again. so did he.
9.23.2011 - they got married in slc, ut.
10.2.2011 - she moved to california, finally.
now - they're living happily ever after.